Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude's dance of the soul

Zimbabwean artist Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude has been named the 2024 FNB Art Prize winner as FNB Art Joburg gears up for its 17th edition from September 6 - 8.

As Africa’s leading and longest running contemporary art fair, FNB Art Joburg says it aims to sustainably support and grow the continent’s cultural offering in ways that go beyond the fair. The annual FNB Art Prize, now in its 14th year, helps accelerate the trajectory of contemporary African art.

Nyaude joins previous winners Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Dada Khanyisa, Wycliffe Mundopa, Lady Skollie, Bronwyn Katz, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Peju Alatise, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera, Nelisiwe Xaba, Mocke J van Veuren, Kudzanai Chiurai and Cedric Nunn.

Hailing from Mbare, Harare, Nyaude’s images move between figuration, abstraction and hallucination. The artist draws from the restless energy of his neighbourhood and country, where more than 70% of the population is under the age of 30. Living on the edge between survival and chaos, his visual messages are brutal and sentimental. They capture a generation’s absurdly relentless drive to attain and maintain dignity and a quality of life that sometimes appears beyond reach.

16 years into his artistic vocation, Nyaude has achieved international acclaim and collector recognition. In 2018 he presented a major body of work in the US as part of Songs for Sabotage at the New Museum Triennial. His work also sits in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (Macaal), Rubell Family Collection, Jorge Perez personal collection and numerous notable private collections.

As the winner of the 2024 prize, Nyaude receives a cash prize and a solo exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery where the largest African art collection resides. 

You speak of an addiction to colour. What does colour allow you to do?

It took me almost 10 years before I could confidently say ‘now I am a painter’. I spent almost three years just learning to mix paint. Trying to achieve the perfect shade that communicates not just want I want to say but also in relation to the whole painting as it evolves. It is like stepping into an ocean and learning to swim in a tsunami. So all my colours are entirely my own and no one else’s, they are me and my voice and my emotions.

Why painting as opposed to other media?

Painting is a space which is both physical and sensual and incredibly intellectual. It is a dance of the soul. Because it took me so long to grow into painting, it is now a place I live rather than a place I visit.

Who are the predecessors you look up to?

For many people my influences seem to be easily detectable and it is true Jean-Michel Basquiat was and remains a huge inspiration both in terms of his reframing of the approach to using a symbolic vocabulary and storytelling and engagement with the picture field. And of course Francis Bacon is a big hero for me as someone who prioritises emotional veracity over documentary representation. I also look at Zimbabwean and African painters, too many to mention here. I am a painter and the global breadth of the painting history and tradition is inspiring to me.

The theme of time comes up in some of your works. Can you talk to that contemplation on time and other themes that you gravitate towards?

‘Time Decays’ is a phrase that formed a core rumination for my show ‘Immanentize the Eschaton’. The reason being a sense of urgency to achieve what we develop as we age, together with the inevitability of impermanence. Some of the other themes that I have been working through over the past decade are around the culture of hypocrisy that infects our politics and social relationships. The shadow of doubt and distrust amid keeping up appearances. My approach to practice is to see my own life experiences as a touchstone for a conversation with my city and my country at every juncture and I leave that space open to change and evolution.

Please elaborate on the images you conjure up, some of which are headless giving ideas of abstraction or infinity.

The images which emerge in my paintings are all symbolic of concepts and emotions underpinning those concepts. So headless figures are sometimes to emphasise symbolic aspects of other body parts. I want to draw my audiences into an emotional experience, which leads them to develop their own ideas which may or may not coincide with my own. I am free to make the work that I make and I share that freedom with my audiences.

Catch Nyaude's new work at FNB Art Joburg on September 6 - 8 at the Sandton Convention Centre. He will present ‘Immanentize the Eschaton’ which is currently on show at First Floor Gallery Harare until August 31.